Gender, Sexuality and Rights

Questions for Discussion:

What were the issues involved in legislating on and campaigning on gender rights in Latin American states? How have activists engaged with national and international legislation? How important have conceptions of citizenship been for advocacy and/ or legislation relating to gender and/ or sexuality? What has been the relationship between social norms and legislation?

Primary Sources:

Argentina's Gender Identity Law, 2012. English Translation of Argentina's Gender Identity Law, 2012.

The Yogyakarta Principles, 2006.

Core Reading:

Paulina García-Del Moral. "Transforming Feminicidio: Framing, Institutionalization and Social Change" Current Sociology, 64:7, 2016, 1017-1035.

Julie Hollar (2018) "The political mediation of Argentina's gender identity law: LGBT activism and rights innovation", Journal of Human Rights, 17:4, 453-469

Penny Miles, "Brokering Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity: Chilean Lawyers and Public Interest Litigation Strategies." Bulletin of Latin American Research (2015) 34:4, 435-450.

Writing for a public audience:

Choose one of the articles about contemporary human rights issues in Brazil suggested in the reading list below for the Brazilian activist, Marielle Franco. Who do you think the intended audience might be? What strategies has the writer used to attract and keep the attention of the reader? What does the reader stand to learn from the article? Would they need any background knowledge to understand the article?

#MariellePresente: A Reading List for Marielle Franco, NACLA, March 2020.

Further Reading:

Clara Araújo, Anna Calasanti, and Mala Htun, “Women, Power, and Policy in Brazil,” in Leslie Schwindt Bayer, ed., Gender and Representation in Latin America New York: Oxford University Press, 2018.

Silvia Marina Arrom, The Women of Mexico City, 1790-1857. Berkley: University of California Press, 1985.

Medea Benjamin and Maisa Mendonça, Benedita da Silva: an Afro-Brazilian woman’s story of politics and love. 1997.

Elizabeth Dore and Maxine Molyneux (eds.) Hidden Histories of Gender and the State in Latin America. Durham, NC, Duke University Press, 2000.

Cristian Berco. “Silencing the Unmentionable: Non-Reproductive Sex and the Creation of a Civilized Argentina, 1860-1900.” The Americas, vol. 58, no. 3, 2002, p. 419.

Javier Corrales, and Mario Pecheny (eds.) The Politics of Sexuality in Latin America: A Reader on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Rights. University of Pittsburgh Press, 2010.

Díez, Jordi. The Politics of Gay Marriage in Latin America: Argentina, Chile, and Mexico. Cambridge University Press, 2015.

Rosa-Linda Fregoso and Cynthia Bejarano, eds. Terrorizing Women: Feminicide in the Américas. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2010.

Elisabeth Jay Friedman. (2012) "Constructing “the same rights with the same names”: The impact of Spanish norm diffusion on marriage equality in Argentina." Latin American Politics and Society, (2013) 54:4, 29–59.

García-Del Moral, Paulina. "Transforming Feminicidio: Framing, Institutionalization and Social Change" Current Sociology, vol. 64, no. 7, Nov. 2016, p. 1017.

Julie Hollar (2018) "The political mediation of Argentina's gender identity law: LGBT activism and rights innovation", Journal of Human Rights, 17:4, 453-469

Mala Htun and S. Laurel Weldon, The Logics of Gender Justice: State Action on Women’s Rights around the World. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2018.

Mala Htun, “Political Inclusion and Representation of Afrodescendant Women in Latin America,” in Maria Escobar-Lemmon and Michelle Taylor-Robinson, eds. Representation: The Case of Women (Oxford University Press, 2014).

Mala Htun, Sex and the State: Abortion, Divorce, and the Family under Latin American Dictatorships and Democracies (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2003)

Margaret E. Keck, and Kathryn Sikkink. Activists Beyond Borders: Advocacy Networks in International Politics. Cornell University Press, 1998. (Chapter 5)

Cecilia McCallum, "Women Out of Place? A Micro-Historical Perspective on the Black Feminist Movement in Salvador da Bahia, Brazil." Journal of Latin American Studies, 39:1 (2007): 55-80.

Kathryn M. Marino. Feminism for the Americas: The Making of and International Human Rights Movement. Chapel Hill, NC: UNC Press, 2019.

Penny Miles, "Brokering Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity: Chilean Lawyers and Public Interest Litigation Strategies." Bulletin of Latin American Research (2015) 34:4, 435-450.

Penny Miles, "Challenging Heteronormativity: Atala Riffo and Daughters v. Chile." In S. Smart, K. Fernandez, & C. Peña (Eds.), Chile and the Inter-American Human Rights System Institute of Latin American Studies, School of Advanced Study, University of London, 2007.

Maxine Molyneux. Women's Movemnents in International Perspective: Latin America and Beyond. Palgrave Macmillan, 2000.

Maxine Molyneux, and Shahra Razavi (ed.), Gender Justice, Development, and Rights. Oxford University Press USA - OSO, 2003.

Shawn Schulenberg. "The construction and enactment of same-sex marriage in Argentina." Journal of Human Rights, (2012)11:1, 106–125.

Jocelyn Olcott. “Cold War Conflicts and Cheap Cabaret: Sexual Politics at the 1975 United Nations International Women’s Year Conference Gender & History.” Gender & History, vol. 22, no. 3, Nov. 2010, pp. 733–754.

Steve J. Stern. The Secret History of Gender: Women, Men and Power in Late Colonial Mexico. University of North Carolina Press, 1995.

Carl F. Stychin. "Same-sex sexualities and the globalization of human rights discourse." McGill Law Journal, (2004) 49:4, 951–968.

Sutton, Barbara. Bodies in Crisis: Culture, Violence and Women’s Resistance in Neoliberal Argentina. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2010.

Diana Taylor Disappearing Acts: Spectacles of Gender and Nationalism in Argentina’s Dirty War. Duke, 1997.

Some films and podcasts:

Nina Lakhani talks about her book about the murder of an environmentalist. Who Killed Berta Cáceres?

XXY. Dir. Lucía Puenzo. Argentina, 2007.

The Kiss of the Spider Woman. Dir. Hector Babenco. Brazil, 1985. (See also Manuel Puig's 1976 novel of the same name on which the film is based. We have some copies in the library.)